I have learned through Mr. Stanley’s article published in the Register Star that the Voyager newspaper faces elimination due to limited enrollment and budget limits. This must not be allowed to happen, for it will be such a loss to Guilford High School.

As former managing editor of the Voyager from class of 1984, I must share with you the many ways that the experience enriched my education and my life. All of my former Voyager staff members remain in contact with each other, 30 years after graduation, all in agreement that the lessons learned in room 105 were life-changing and reached far beyond the pages of the paper we produced. Furthermore, many of us remain in close contact with our adviser, a gifted leader, Connie Pemble, who taught English and journalism.

How can I enumerate the invaluable lessons learned as Voyager reporter and editor? I can begin with the most important: a sense of social responsibility, an obligation to think beyond one’s sense of self and the ability to actualize one’s part as a cog in a wheel of a cooperative community. To teach young people to work cooperatively toward a common goal, to report impartially the news of the community, of that community in the world, and to do real work for change where it is needed are the most important lessons of our time, are they not?

Here are the practical lessons, the concrete ones: to gather, prepare, and present information impartially, to cooperate and work as a team, to delegate responsibility, to manage people, deadlines, and honor personal commitment and integrity, to effectively and creatively express thoughts and views, to persuade at times, and perhaps most importantly, the mere value of the written word — these are universally and undeniably essential lessons in the life of every young person, no matter their goal in life. Society today, and always, relies on information and communication.

I took English/journalism with Connie Pemble my junior year at Guilford, but I didn’t yet see in myself the potential that she saw. A pivotal moment in my life was when Connie saw in me the potential to lead. I was struck completely unaware when she appointed me to be managing editor of the paper for my senior year. Her confidence in me lit a fire that drove a desire to ask questions, to seek truths and to express a creative mind that needed to be unlocked.

I took that ball and ran with it as surely as any football player that ever sprinted to the goal line at Swanson Stadium. I pursued science and art, ultimately earning an MFA at Northern Illinois University. For what is art, but the lifelong burning desire to ask questions, to push the envelope — a desire to find one’s place in the world?

Page 2 of 2 - Sounds a lot like reporting, doesn’t it?

Please, please find a way to fund the Voyager newspaper. Don’t let these kids down. You and your staff should be able to find the potential in 10 more students who perhaps don’t realize they have it and to identify them as leaders. The best educators, like Connie Pemble, will recognize a spark in a child, a hint of what they can be. Make the sacred investment of your confidence in them. Push them in that direction, open a door for them. They will walk through it with that same confidence.